BUTLER TWP — Consider it culture shock.

Fred Skrocki coached Schenley High School's boys basketball team for 24 years, winning 449 games, a state championship and five City League titles in a 12-year span there.

Now in his third year as Butler County Community College men's basketball coach, Skrocki has won a total of four games, including an 0-3 start this year while allowing 100 points per game.

"It's been tough," the Butler resident admitted. "We're still looking for players and having a hard time finding them.

"There's 4,000 kids in this school and I've got seven players. This is college basketball. You'd think more kids would be excited about playing."

Skrocki said he had 80 boys come out for basketball at Schenley.

"They couldn't wait to play," he said. "Here, it's a lot different. But I love the game and I love working with kids. We're doing the best we can."

The Pioneers' tallest player is 6-foot-2 Melvin Dolberry Jr. of Arundel, Va. Skrocki's other forward is 6-1 Ethan Danner, a Knoch graduate.

Rounding out the starting five are point guard Zac Weleski from Knoch, guards Shane Snyder from Butler and Brian Zeleznik from Nordonia, Ohio. Zeleznik is the team's lone returning player.

"To sustain a program, you need four or five returnees every year," Skrocki said. "That's not happening for us. We're having trouble keeping players eligible and we're pretty much starting over every year."

Coming off the bench for BC3 are 6-1 freshman Greg Buczko from Butler and guard A.J. Weigand from Moniteau.

Butler graduate Chris Klutinoty also is listed on the roster, but he's been battling knee problems and has yet to play this season.

Skrocki retired from a 26-year teaching career at Schenley in June and now teaches physical education part time at Butler Catholic.

Chuck Franklin, his assistant coach the past two years at BC3, is no longer with the program. Skrocki has no assistant coach or statistician.

"We do skill work in practice because we don't have enough guys to scrimmage and work on plays," Skrocki said. "We just played a Lorain team that has a frontcourt of 6-foot-7, 6-5 — we can't compete against something like that.

"We can't even push the ball up and down the court because we don't have the numbers."

Yet the Pioneers persevere.

"I try to keep the kids' heads up, but it's hard when you're losing by 50 because you're outmanned," the coach said. "We just work every day to get better."

Sean Carroll enters his eighth year as the Pioneers' first and only head coach. BC3 finished 3-12 last season.The Pioneers have four returnees in sophomores Pam Gagen and Jessica Protzman from Knoch, Lindsey Peters from Butler and Kati Weibel from Karns City.Freshmen on the team are guard Maddy Duncan from Ellwood City, guard-forwards Ashley Campbell from Karns City and Sarah Beals from Seneca Valley, and Jamie Antoszyk from Knoch.Campbell and Weibel are the tallest players on the team at 5-10."Three of our players are on the volleyball team, so we've had limited practice time with them being at nationals," Carroll said. "That success is great for the college, though. I'll take it every year."Carroll said the strength of his team is shooting. The biggest area of concern is finding the primary ballhandler."We've got some people who can do it, but somebody has to step into the forefront there," the coach said."We should be able to extend defenses, though, because we've got girls who can hit the 3s."Carroll said this year's team is athletic "and that will help us step things up defensively."